Tag: Japan-China island dispute

In an unusually vigorous rebuttal to Japan’s latest accusations that China is using aggressive tactics to expand its maritime reach, the Chinese Defense Ministry said Japan was undermining stability in the region with its claims to disputed islands known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkakus in Japan.

The Defense Ministry, which issued its statement on Friday, rarely mentions another country by name, Chinese experts said.

The Chinese military is “strongly discontented and resolutely against” the accusations in a Japanese white paper, an annual assessment of the country’s military situation, a spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry, Geng Yansheng, said in a statement.

Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday vowed to “expel by force” any Chinese landing on islands at the centre of a territorial row, after eight Chinese government vessels sailed into disputed waters.

“We would take decisive action against any attempt to enter territorial waters and to land” on the islands, Mr Shinzo Abe told parliament in response to questions from lawmakers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ctO0UQgDUio

Eight Chinese government ships have entered Japanese territorial waters near disputed islands, the most in a single day since Tokyo nationalised part of the archipelago, the Japanese government says. A flotilla of boats carrying more than 80 Japanese nationalists had arrived in waters near the islands on Tuesday, risking further straining Tokyos already tense relations with its Asian neighbours.Japan’s coastguard confirmed the Chinese vessels had entered waters near the East China Sea island chain.The maritime surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile zone off the Senkaku chain of islands, which China calls the Diaoyu, about 8am 9am AEST, the Japan Coast Guard said in a statement.State-owned Chinese ships have frequently spent time around the five disputed islands, also claimed by Taiwan, in recent months.

The United States has warned China about staking claim to the Japan owned Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, saying that it will oppose any unilateral action in this regard.

The warning came in light of the continued violation of Japan’s airspace and waters around the uninhabited islets by Chinese planes and ships.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a meeting with Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, said Washington is obligated to defend the Senkaku islet group if it comes under attack under the bilateral security treaty between the US and Japan, the Japan Times reports.

Clinton added that the US has acknowledged Japan’s legal ownership of the Senkakus, although U.S. does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands. Clinton also urged Tokyo and Beijing to resolve the dispute peacefully.

Japan purchased three of the main Senkaku islets in 2011, whose sovereignty is contested by both China and Taiwan.

Insisting that the Senkakus are an integral part of Japan’s territory, Kishida said his government would not compromise on its long-standing position that no dispute exists over their sovereignty.

Kishida, however, hoped for reduced tensions and increased stability between China and Japan, after Clinton’s statement.